Without sufficient storage capabilities, alternative energy is inconsistent and unreliable. Richard Peterson, professor of mechanical engineering at Oregon State University, is developing a thermal energy storage system that competes with current energy storage methods. Today, water and batteries are among the most common storage methods. Water can be pumped from a low elevation to a high elevation and then released when energy is needed, but this method relies on geographic features of the land such as mountains or hills and requires a large area; batteries use chemical reactions to store and release energy but are expensive. Thermal energy storage systems have been considered impractical because they are inefficient, but Peterson’s system changes that by storing energy in tanks in the form of “ice slurry.” As the ice melts the energy that is released is recaptured and used. Heat expelled from geothermal sources or industrial manufacturing plants can be incorporated into the process to make the system as efficient as other energy storage systems. “We could integrate into business enterprises that have a source of waste heat readily available,” Peterson says. The storage system can be scaled to fit large power plants, wind farms or private businesses.

Today's Thermal Energy Storage Systems are very efficient. I completely disagree with the author's statement, "Thermal energy storage systems have been considered impractical because they are inefficient....”

Thermal Energy Storage systems of today are part of hybrid cooling systems that lower the connected load by right sizing the cooling system. These Hybrid cooling systems that use thermal energy storage can use water, ice, or ice slurry as a medium. Hybrid cooling systems that use thermal energy storage have synergies with cooling systems that allow them to operate more efficiently as a system. Pumping colder temperatures with more btuh's means lower flow which save fan and pump energy. Charging of the storage occurs at night. Night time electricity is typically more efficiently generated and more efficiently transported and it renewable energy component is increasing. Creating a load renewable energy is key to their viability.

Google Fossil Ridge School ice storage, part of the Poudre School District, or Credit Suisse ice storage, or Bank of America Tower ice storage. They are saving energy and storage using thermal energy storage.

To have a blanket statement that thermal energy storage systems are impractical an inefficient is to say the ice slurry form of thermal energy storage is inefficient too. It makes no sense.

BY JASON NORRIS, CFA | OB GUEST BLOGGER

Pets.com, GeoCities, eToys, and WorldCom … blasts-from-the-past that all signify the late 1990s Internet bubble. Yet we believe the dynamics of the market, specifically in technology stocks, are much different today than it was during the late 1990s.

Brand Stories

BY KATRINA WALKER

Generations of students and graduates have been plagued by the question: What is my true calling in life? Four alumni from Corban University’s Hoff School of Business who graduated in different decades say the school helped them find the answer by giving them a practical, well-rounded education.

It’s happening whether anyone’s ready or not. Businesses here in Oregon and across the U.S. are already experiencing the effects of the largest generational shift in recent history, and these changing tides will impact every level of the workplace — from a company’s executive leadership to its cultural core.

The Oregon Chapter of the Society for Marketing Professional Services, will be hosting it’s Annual Dinner and Keynote event on March 12, 2015. The evening promises to be memorable, with this years Keynote, Christine McKinley.